Shaped articles have heretofore usually been made from ductile cast iron by casting the desired shape and machining the cast article. In more recent times, it has been proposed to so control the chemical composition of ductile cast iron that, when the casting is made in a chill mold and fully annealed, the cast metal will be workable by rolling, forging or hammering. However, all prior-art methods for producing articles from ductile cast iron have been unduly expensive, save in the case of centrifugally casting pipe, and there has been an increasing need for less expensive methods because of the shortened supply of steel.